Kristen Sobeck

I am a Research Fellow at the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (TTPI), at the Australian National University. I have published various policy reports on wage and income policies, as well as tax reform.


Prior to joining TTPI, I worked for a decade as an economist at the International Labour Organization (ILO) from its headquarters in Geneva, where I focused on wage and income policies. I also worked at the ILO's country office in Argentina, where my focus was on the informal economy. During my career at the ILO, I worked closely with trade unions, employers' organisations and governments to design and evaluate public policies using administrative and survey data sources.


I was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2007 and hold a Bachelor's degree in economics and French from Smith College. I also hold a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Geneva. I'm completing my PhD in Economics part-time at the Australian National University, while working full-time at TTPI.


I speak English, French, and Spanish fluently. 


My full CV is available here. You can also contact me via email at: kristen.sobeck@anu.edu.au

Working papers

Does decreasing the generosity of payments to single parents have employment and earnings effects?  Evidence from Australian administrative data (with Robert Breunig) 

We examine the impact of two changes to Australia’s Parenting Payment Single (PSS) program, a welfare payment for low-income single mothers.  One change lowered the age of youngest child cut off for program eligibility, forcing new welfare entrants onto the less generous Newstart payment.  A second change increased job search requirements for those on PPS.  We use a difference-in-difference strategy which exploits the rule changes combined with an unannounced end to grandfathering provisions to disentangle the two effects.  We find little effects of the increased job search requirements.  The decreased generosity of the program does not change the overall number of single mothers in employment.  However, it produces a large decrease in the share of single mothers who rely on a combination of welfare and employment.  Between 31.1 and 36.1 per cent of single mothers who ever received PPS between 2011 and 2016 eliminated their use of welfare.  On average, likely due to the decreased generosity of the welfare payments, single mothers had lower incomes after the policy changes.



Publications


Sobeck, Kristen . Greedy jobs, labour market institutions, and the gender pay gap 


Robert Breunig and Kristen Sobeck (2023). Wealth inequality and the tax system, a report commissioned by the Actuaries Institute of Australia.


Sobeck, Kristen, Robert Breunig and Alex Evans (2022). Corporate income taxation in Australia: Theory, current practice and future policy directions, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (TTPI) Policy Report No. 01-2022, Canberra, Australia.

 

Sobeck, Kristen and Robert Breunig (2020). The impact of government funded retirement contributions (matching) on the retirement savings behaviour of low and middle income individuals. Report commissioned by the Australian Commonwealth Treasury for the Retirement Income Review.

 

Robert Breunig and Kristen Sobeck (2020). The economic incidence of superannuation. Report commissioned by the Australian Commonwealth Treasury for the Retirement Income Review.

 

Varela, Peter, Robert Breunig, and Kristen Sobeck (2020). The taxation of savings in Australia: Theory, current practice and future policy directions, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute (TTPI) Policy Report No. 01-2020, Canberra, Australia.

 

Steinhauser, Ralf, Mathias Sinning and Kristen Sobeck (2019). State tax elasticities of revenue bases.  Report commissioned by the Australian Commonwealth Grants Commission.

 

ILO Panorama Laboral 2017 de America Latina y el Caribe (2017). Co-author of the second part of the report (special focus) on wage trends in Latin America since 2005.

 

ILO Panorama Laboral 2016 de America Latina y el Caribe (2016). Contributing author.

 

ILO Minimum Wage Policy Guide (2016). Contributing author. 

 

Sobeck, Kristen, Patrick Belser, and Rosalia Vazquez-Alvarez. (2016) “Recent Debates in Inequality, Wages, and Labour Productivity” Giornale di Diritto del Lavoro e di Relazioni Industriali. 150, pp. 365-80. 

 


ILO Global Wage Report 2014/15: Wages and income inequality (2014). Contributing author. International Labour Office. Geneva. 

 


ILO Global Wage Report 2012/13: Wages and equitable growth (2012). Contributing author. International Labour Office. Geneva. 


 

Belser, Patrick and Kristen Sobeck. “At what level should countries set their minimum wages?" International Journal of Labour Research. 4.1 (2012): 105-27. 

Lee, Sangheon, and Kristen Sobeck. "Low-wage work: A global perspective." International Labour Review. 151.3 (2012): 141-55. 

ILO Global Wage Report 2010/11: Wage policies in times of crisis (2010). Contributing author. International Labour Office. Geneva. 

 


Flückiger,Yves, Giovanni Ferro-Luzzi, Kristen Sobeck, Roman Graf, and Jean-Marc Falter (2008).  Domestic Work in Switzerland: Calculation of the prevailing wages in the domestic services sector in Switzerland in consideration of the establishment of a standard contract. State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO. Published in French.